The Road To Babylon
by Loveless Aphrodite
Summary: How far will a villan and a vigilante go to save the friends and the dismal realities that they cling to? Can they win a race against the clock and their own haunting memories to save the things they cherish the most?Response to dlsky challenge.
1. Chapter 1

This fic is in response to dlsky's challenge to 'make slade the good guy.' I can see now that it will be extremely difficult to keep him in character, but hey, I'll try. Everyone else is doing a really awesome job at this, I just got the green light to start last night, so here it goes!

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The night air was crisp and cool in jump city, a sharp contrast to the heat that usually engulfed the huge city during the day, a palled moon hung rigidly over

the dead frames of the buildings, in fact, you might say the entire city was completely and utterly deceased, except for a single cave. A cave might seem like an odd

place to hang out to most people, but 'most people' have probably never been in one. They are dark and subtle, barely touching the earth, and lingering eternally as

if in some other dimension, endearing, but filled with demons. Slade Wilson often pondered these things while staring at the empty mildewed walls that he ruled over,

eternally sipping a bottomless cup of tea, and plotting forever against the rest of the world, only Wintergreen, bothering him, or the stone statue of the Markov girl

peacefully staring into space. In fact, February 11th seemed not to be any different, but you could call it the beginning of the fall of the empire, if you were some

corny sci-fi producer. What it really was was a cool winter night where nothing was any more than trivial. Trivial…

It was a normal night. I was alone with my own mind again. I didn't mind though. It had proved more than once to be a worthy companion more than once

in the many years I have been alive. Wintergreen stood in the corner, a distant look on his face, absentmindedly smoking a cigar. I had seen him more than once like

this in the past few weeks. I was slightly worried, or the closest a deadly psychopath could come to being worried. Neither of us smoked that often, it wasn't as if

either of us had much to lose, but we never did. We both, literally, had all the time in the world. Maybe I was just going soft; I don't normally show any kind of

compassion towards friends. Wintergreen, I did not really consider my friend, more of an acquaintance, both of us drawn together by a very unlikely scenario.

Wintergreen, obviously, had been contemplating some of the same things as me, yet had neither the countenance to speak for more than seven seconds without

becoming wary of the person whom he was talking too, or bored with them. For people who weren't really friends, we both thought alike. Wintergreen exhaled,

letting out a lonely puff of smoke from between his slightly parted lips, blocking out the dull light of the one TV screen I had left on. Just another ordinary night.

_500,000 miles away: Remote Antarctic facility_

"The whole operation is set up, I double checked everything, I don't think anything will go wrong." A skinny girl stood in front of the woman in charge,

breathing heavily as sweat poured thinly in a sheer layer over her frizzy brunette hair, nervous green eyes peering cautiously through the huge holes in her glasses.

"You forgot one thing." The girl's already huge eyes widened. "Wh-at what did I forget I-I know I got everything." The girl frantically flipped through the large stack

of papers that she balanced almost acrobatically, scanning over each one for a few seconds. Suddenly the pile fell to the floor. The girl bent over to pick them up, a

thin finger shot down, grabbing her chin with lightning reflexes and pulling it up to the ladies level. "When you address me, refer to me as madam, or mistress, never

nothing, I am not an inanimate object Kerri." Kerri stuttered slightly, and let out a nervous giggle. "I'm very sorry ma'am it's just that." The lady spoke. "In my days

in the army, misconduct was not tolerated. People were often killed for misbehavior where I come from."

"I'm very sorry…"

"Ma'am."

"Ma'am, but this prospect is really"

"Interesting. Yes. That might be the only thing I ever agree with you on at my… somewhat short stay here. Hopefully we are both very clear on this Miss

Wyles."

"Crystal." The lady finally seemed to notice the scattered papers on the floor. She bent over slowly and picked one up, observing it, a slow, malevolent

smile slowly etching over her stony face. "You might pick these up, deadline is in four hours." The lady walked away silently, and the girl quickly picking up the

scattered papers, and adjusting her comm. Link, so she could hear nothing. "Four hours." She whispered into the small piece, she listened for a reply, her ears

being met by the sound of static. The girl stood and briskly walked away.

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WOW! That has to be the longest chapter I've ever written.For a person used to helping their friend write about kamikaze turtles, this is pretty OK, no? Am I laying on the vocabulary too thick here. I'd really appreciate your opinion. Please review!


	2. A Hectic Morning

Might I apologize for being slightly late? I've been having a lot of trouble writing this, I've been awfully busy this week… next chap. As promised! Oh yeah, and to start, sorry about last chapter's funky font, my computer is evil… If you buy a Dell Pentium desktop, I suggest you don't try to set it up yourself. Starting this chapter, here's a quote from my buddy ivorypanther's poem, yes I got permission; you may e-mail her and ask if you wish to know.

An eternal smile its mind is curled

Around a thought

Around your throat

Animal

Raven sat down slowly in the titan's vast kitchen, enjoying the silence that replaced the usual upbeat screams of Beast Boy and the angry brooding of Robin. How she enjoyed quiet mornings. The quiet, the solitude, the tea… yes, that was probably the best part of all. Raven took a strong whiff of her tea, the dark aroma filling her mind with peace. Nothing could possibly ruin her mood. Suddenly, a sudden noise broke the silence. "DUDE YOU ARE SO PAYING FOR THAT!"

"WAHH! IT WAS SILKIE, I SWEAR IT, WAHH ROBIN!" Yes, the wake up call…

Beast Boy ran frantically into the kitchen, his eyes lit and his mouth in a toothy grin, something black and roughly the texture of coffee staining his usual outfit, and quite like every morning, turned into an ant and dove under the couch. Cyborg ran into the room, holding a wrench and mumbling. "Where is that little maggot, I swear the second I see him I'll crush his scull in…"

"What did he do this time? Break your car?" Beast Boy poked his head out from under the couch. "I didn't hurt it I swear! Raven, don't let him hurt me…" Raven stared blankly, if you want me, I'll be in my room. Raven disappeared in a curling burst of obsidian energy. Yes, it was quite the usual morning. "What did he do this time? Break your car?" Robin walked into the room, frowning and adjusting his mask. "Does everyone think I broke Cyborg's car?"

"Please friends, why do you fight? Can we not partake in the eating of 'pizza' and forget this 'pounding of Beast Boy?' Starfire still, somehow, had trouble with English even though she had been on earth for nearly a year. Suddenly Starfire tripped. "Eep!" A pizza hit the wall and slid down the shining black linoleum, leaving a long trail of marinara sauce in its wake. Everyone stared at each other. "I'll get a mop." Beast boy shuffled away to get a mop.

"It's not fair, why do I always have to get the mop? Why cant Robin get the mop, it's not like I'm specially trained in the art of cleaning up what Starfire dropped. What am I, pizza boy?" Beast boy looked at the console for detecting criminals that Cyborg had built into the wall. He stopped and looked at it.

The screen pulsed a steady green. Beast Boy frowned. He was no expert but something wasn't right. By this time of the morning, there were usually four or five criminals destroying the city, or killing people.

Beast Boy looked at the screen again, staring at his quizzical expression as if the screen might answer his question, the only thing that happened was the screen went into a brief static and his face showed back up. Oh well, the mop wouldn't get itself. Beast Boy walked to the closet grabbing the mop and went back to the kitchen. None of the titans were in the kitchen, but there was a note on the table, written in Raven's small and precise script.

_To whom it may concern. (Meaning you beast boy.) We went to get more pizza. Don't go into my room, don't touch any of my stuff, and don't touch any of Robin, Cyborg, Starfire's things either. Robin would appreciate it if you wouldn't play with the controls on the obstacle course again too. Point blank, don't touch anything. We'll be back in a few minutes. If you didn't read this, then thank you. I win Cyborg's twenty dollars. _

_-Raven_

Beast Boy sighed. This was typical. The whole team goes and leaves beast boy alone to clean. He was like godda Cinderella. The pizza sauce was drying on the wall now, creating a hard, brown crust. A single fly swarmed around the stain, buzzing lazily. Wait a minute, something SERIOUSLY wasn't right. The new security system was supposed to block everything that didn't match the titan's individual DNA signatures, he had been bragging about his newest innovation for months. The fly should have been fried by the new high tech laser beams. The fly stopped in midair, suddenly staring at beast boy, or rather at the wall behind him. Beast Boy turned around, shuddering as a breeze hit his back coldly.

Beast Boy stopped cold. There was a huge hole in the wall, charring at the edges, and slowly burning a hole in the carpet. The hole seemed to be beckoning him. "Come on beast boy WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! Come on beast boy there's an invader in the tower. Get out now. Go get robin. He can deal with it. Beast boy WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Beast Boy turned back toward the kitchen, as if in a trance. He opened his communicator.

"Five minutes till operation TL commences." Kerri stumbled over to the console, her mouth plastered in a small grin like a Halloween pumpkin shadows playing over her small pale face. "This is the moment we have waited for for months!"

Beast Boy frowned, and robin showed up on the communicator. "Robin, dude, I think something's going on."

"This is what we have labored for, breathed for, given lives for. THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE DONE!" The small crowd of people cheered, the cheer becoming a roar as the sounds slipped off the icy walls of the cave in an eerie unison. "Only four minutes my friends, only four."

"Robin, I seriously think something's wrong."

"Why Beast Boy, it sounds fine to me, what makes you think something's going on?"

Oh I don't know, maybe the HUGE SMOKING HOLE IN THE WALL!"

Kerri stood, the three straight days she had stayed awake clearly showing as she slightly stooped. The lady, who had stood silently in the corner until now, smiled. Kerri suddenly frowned. She was forgetting something. Something… she was forgetting something. The lady frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no Ma'am."

"Good. Five seconds."

"Beast Boy, get out of there, BEAST BOY! Are you listening to me? Get out of that building. We're coming. Just get yourself out of there."

"Four seconds."

"Beast Boy, do you hear me?"

"Three seconds."

"We don't know what we're messing with yet, you need to leave."

"Two, one."

"BEAST BOY!"

_Meanwhile at the Jump city pizza parlor._

Robin screamed into the communicator. "BEAST BOY!" He heard nothing. "Raven, teleport us to the tower."

"But, Robin."

"Now!" Robin was staring at his communicator, as if in disbelief. He didn't wear his determined face though, he actually looked… scared. "Okay Robin, hold on a second." Raven screwed her face, and sat silently, concentrating. Suddenly, they were back at the tower, and all left speechless.

"What happened here?" The tower was a smoldering mess. The furniture was charred and smelled like burnt rubber; all that was left of it were skeletons of metal, every bit of cloth gone. It looked as if a creature had gone through and destroyed everything.

Worst of all, Beast Boy was gone.

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Wow, as I read over that it sounds like a funky mix between the Tommy Knockers and Brave new world. Ah well, my stories usually end up sounding like what I'm reading. So, what happened to beast boy? You'll just have to wait to find out. CRAP that sounded corny… anyways, review, and thanks for the last chapter reviews.


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